Design is more than a job for me. It’s a lens to understand the world, my tool to captivate the senses, and a means to tread lightly on this Earth. My work serves as a bridge between artistic expression and functional engineering, exploring the line between productivity and ethical consumption. From conceptualization to execution, I infuse my designs with intentionality, environmental awareness, and joy. We have the ability to treat business as a powerful catalyst for social change, and create a better world for generations to come.
My experience as a nonbinary creative has taught me to function outside of conventional norms, calling me to find new ways to think and operate. I was trained in traditional Industrial Design, which serves as the inner mechanism of our product economy. The product and branding industries, like most others, has been dominated by white, neurotypical, cis-het males. This perspective permeates into the things they create, and people yearn for brands to be more inclusive and aware. The products we surround ourselves with affect our daily lives in profound ways, holding the potential to alleviate or exacerbate the stresses of modern life. This perspective inspires me to create experiences where every individual feels seen, heard and celebrated. Life is hard as it is, thus our tools shouldn’t add to the chaos.
There are times for my creations to be the center of attention, but I find greater success in making products that fit seamlessly into a person’s day, minimizing its distraction from the life they’re living.
I recognize I am living on stolen land.
My home in Pittsburgh resides on the ancestral home of the Haudenosaunee, Lenape, and Shawnee Nations.
I grew up on lands shared by the Shawnee, Erie, Wyandot, and Delaware Nations.
These lands were stolen with brutal violence,
ultimatums disguised as treaties,
Iillnesses planted on vulnerable people,
and every means to restrict resources.
Different forms of atrocities have been committed for over 350 years
by white colonizers and their generations of families.
We are overdue for proper acknowledgment, reparations, and education of the history that has led to our modern day.
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